Immediately to the east are the poor remains of a large square enclosure, open to the sky and measuring about 30 meters on a side. Built in the early 5th century, at the command of the oracle of Apollo ...
Near the middle of the open square, somewhat to the north, lay the Altar of the Twelve Gods (Fig. 7), today largely hidden under the Athens–Piraeus railway (1891). A corner of the enclosure wall survives, ...
Just uphill from the Tholos was the Bouleuterion, meeting place of the boule, or senate. Five hundred Athenian citizens were chosen by lot to serve for a year, and met in this building every day except ...
Inscribed marble posts were used to mark the entrances to the Agora wherever a street led into the open square. Two have been found in situ, inscribed with the simple text "I am the boundary of the Agora," ...
Several churches were removed following the excavation of the modern neighborhoods overlying the Agora. The Church of the Holy Apostles, because of its early date, was deemed worth preserving and, indeed, ...
Running southward from the east end of the Middle Stoa is the East Building. Its eastern half takes the form of a long hall with a marble chip floor and stone slabs designed to carry wooden furniture, ...
Overlooking the Agora from the hill to the west (Kolonos Agoraios), is the Hephaisteion, the best preserved example of a Doric temple in mainland Greece (Fig. 12). It was dedicated jointly to Hephaistos ...
The excavations of the Athenian Agora have uncovered about thirty acres on the sloping ground northwest of the Acropolis (Fig. 3). Material of all periods from the Late Neolithic to modern times has been ...
Some of the Agora monuments have never been fully buried and were explored by the Archaeological Society starting in the 19th century: the Stoa of Attalos (1859–1862, 1874, and 1898–1902), the Giants ...
Classical Athens saw the rise of an achievement unparalleled in history. Perikles, Aeschylus, Sophokles, Plato, Demosthenes, Thucydides, and Praxiteles represent just a few of the statesmen and playwrights, ...
East of the East Building and Mint we arrive once again at the Panathenaic Way, which in this area is lined along its eastern side by a massive wall built in the 3rd century A.D. (Fig. 42). The wall was ...
Underlying the north end of the Stoa of Attalos are the slight remains of a group of buildings dating to the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. (Fig. 50). Largely open courtyards, they seem to have served as ...
Lying partially under and behind the Late Roman wall are the remains of a building identified by its inscribed marble lintel block as the Library of Pantainos, dedicated to Athena Archegetis, the emperor ...
The Metroon served two functions; it was both a sanctuary of the Mother of the Gods and the archive building of the city, a repository of official records (Fig. 19). The present remains date to the mid-2nd ...
The appearance of the south side of the Agora was radically changed during the 2nd century B.C. with the construction of several new buildings. This South Square, as it is called, was made up of two long ...
Just east of the fountain house lie the miserable remains of a large square building with several rooms; the northern half lies under the Church of the Holy Apostles and the Southeast Temple (Early Roman) ...
Across the street from the Metroon lie the remains of the Monument of the Eponymous Heroes (Fig. 21). When Kleisthenes created the democracy in 508/7 B.C., he assigned all the Athenians to ten newly-formed ...
The area of the northwest corner is where the Panathenaic Way, leading from the main gate of Athens, the Dipylon, entered the Agora square (Figs. 58, 59). This was accordingly the appropriate place for ...
Late in the 1st century B.C. the Athenians were given money for a new marketplace by Caesar and Augustus, and the northern half of the old Agora square was filled with two new structures, the Odeion of ...
Numerous roads led in and out of the Agora square. By far the most important, however, was the broad street known as the Dromos or Panathenaic Way, the principal thoroughfare of the city (Fig. 4). It ...
